American-Style Blueberry Pancakes

Apologise for the slightly blurry photo. I could pretend that I was aiming for an artistic soft-focus kind of look but I'm not, I was just in a rush and am really bad with a camera!

I love American-style pancakes - they're always my first choice of breakfast if I ever find myself stateside (which isn't as often as I'd like...) and yet I had never made them myself at home. It's not that they are partocularly tricky, I just never find pancakes a particularly relaxing breakfast to make for yourself  especially when your family is involved!

However, make them I did and I throughly enjoyed them too. Both children loved them as well, helped along by the blueberries as they're both blueberry fanatics. I tried them with the American staple of maple syrup but found that I much preferred them with golden syrup, probably because it's just a bit sweeter. Now sitting looking at this photo all I can think about is eating them with a big dollop of vanilla ice-cream. Not for breakfast. Obviously.

American-Style Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients

200g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

300ml milk

knob of butter, melted

150g blueberries

sunflower oil for cooking

Method

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt. Beat the egg with the milk and make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.  Whisk the eggy milk into the bowl to make a thick smooth batter. Beat in the melted butter and carefully stir in half of the blueberries.

Heat a teaspoon on oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Drop a large tbsp of batter per pancake into the pan - you're aiming for your pancakes to be about 7cm across and you can easily make three or four pancakes at the same time. Cook for 2-3 minutes over a low-medium heat until small bubbles start to appear on the surface of the pancake, then turn and cook for another 2-3 minutes until golden (or to you preference). 

Cover with kitchen paper to keep warm whilst you make the rest of the batch.

Serve with the syrup of your choice and the rest of the blueberries.

When it comes to buying blueberries, I would say that the smaller you can find, the better. The large ones get a bit messy and the small ones mix in to the batter better. 

These make a lovely lazy weekend breakfast!